Mog’s Christmas Calamity Is A Brilliant Read!

This is the new advert from Sainsbury’s. It’s a short film adaptation of the children’s book, Mog’s Christmas Calamity by Judith Kerr which is out now in most stores – we picked up ours in a Sainsbury’s Local. I hadn’t seen the advert for the book before today (I purchased the book last night) and can say that the advert is really stunning. It depicts all of the main events in the book and was a real joy to watch.

I love Judith Kerr and am now really gutted I missed out on the chance to take LO to one of her book readings in Bath earlier this summer for the Bath Children’s Festival as she was there reading her famous book, “The Tiger Who Came To Tea”. Since then I had made a secret vow to myself that I will find another chance to get LO to see her again one day but in the meantime will try to spoil him with her books instead.

A page from the book

In the book, “Mog” the cat has a very bad dream about birds chasing her and wakes up bewildered. She realises that something had got caught on to her tail and as she tries her best to shake it off, she gets herself into trouble by getting it caught on fire. She spreads the fire to a rug before making a dash out of the house and down the street before meeting a fire engine which chased her back home. After the fire was put out and everyone was safe, they believed that Mog was a hero and that she saved them (not knowing that she actually caused the fire). Reality then set in on Mog’s family and they realised that their Christmas was ruined and everyone felt sad. Then a member of the family noticed something amazing – the whole neighborhood came back to bring gifts, food and friends to help Mog’s family celebrate Christmas despite the calamitous event earlier. The story ends with the family building a snowman together and the son asks the father if they can “do exactly the same next year” to which the father replies “well… perhaps not exactly”. A fabulously lighthearted ending to a wonderful story.

I would like to think that I am passionate about improving child literacy and ever since I started by Beanstalk volunteering role, any little bit that I can do to help support the cause, I will try to. The book itself is only £3.00 so it’s brilliant that all the profits made from each book will go to charity. It’s all part of Save the Children’s ‘Read On. Get On.‘ campaign.

Mog’s Christmas Calamity would make a great gift for someone this Christmas or even just a fantastic read with the whole family when it’s time for story-telling. What I love most about the book is that it also teaches children about the gift of giving – what Christmas is about. It also teaches children about caring for others, helping others when they are in need, and most importantly sharing with each other to bring happiness to all. 🙂

I’ve already read this to LO and he loves it. He also loved watching the Sainsbury’s ad of ‘Moggy’ (what we call her) and this is a story that will definitely be read again in the lead up to the special day!